Re: Re: too bad my wife watches them

Re: Re: It's Fox News

I do watch/read Fox News somewhat, just because CNN and most other mainstream media have such a leftist stance on most things. For me the "fair and balanced" comes from reading from several sources and making my own decisions. I don't really completely believe any single news source without knowing and trusting their sources.

Back before the big labels killed my love of buying shiny plastic discs, this used to drive me crazy. If it was something I liked but was't very popular and wasn't being played any more by the time the CD was released, chances were that I would forget about it and never buy it. If it was by an artist in whom I already had an interest, I was going to buy the disc when it came out regardless of when (or whether) it was played on the radio, so it did not build any additional anticipation for me - just frustration that I could not listen to a finished product because of the whim of some label fatcat. I always felt like it was just them showing me that they, not I, had the power. Well, I showed them, didn't I! I used to buy an average of one or two CDs a month, but as my frustration with the business process grew and my awareness of other sources of music grew, my purchases tapered off. Since 2005 I think I have bought four CDs in total; two by the same artist.

I was a doubter, but now I'm saved

When I first heard about Netflix and their DVD-by-mail service, I thought "Meh. Not for me." Usually when I want to watch a movie, I have to be in the mood for it, and I want to watch it NOW rather than in a few days, so I didn't mind the drive to Blockbuster or Movie Gallery or the convenience store down the road.

Then my wife signed up for a free trial, and I found myself browsing the site a lot and watching movies with her. The streaming was OK, but I have never particularly enjoyed watching movies on my computer so I didn't do it much. Eventually, though, my wife got hooked watching "24" on her computer and said "I wish we could watch these in the living room." After considering building an HTPC, I instead got her a Western Digital FreeAgent Theater+ so we could stream Netflix to the big TV.

Now we can hardly get the TV away from the kids - the teenager has discover 80s action movies, and the 4-year old has discovered animated movies and her favorite PBS shows. But is sure is nice to be able to watch a movie now without running to the brick-and-mortar!

Will they work on PC's, too?

I don't know the technicalities of prgramming apps in HTML, but doesn't that mean they would run on any browser, such as on my laptop or home PC? I've seen apps that looked appealing, and often wondered "Why don't they do that on their website, as well?"

mine too

The newspaper in the nearest town bigger than my burg of 4000 has a partial paywall, but they at least don't encourage you to share the stories. You can read a few paragraphs, then hit the paywall (free for print subscribers) to read more. Being such a small market it is sometimes difficult to find local news from other sources, but the comments are open to all and usually I can get the rest of the story from them.